The Gothic Line: Canada’s Month of Hell in World War II Italy

In this third volume of his critically acclaimed trilogy tracing Canada’s involvement in World War II’s Italian campaign, Mark Zuehlke vividly recounts the Battle of the Gothic Line. The line was meant to be impregnable, a final fortified position that would enable the battered German divisions to bring the Allied advance up Italy’s boot to a decisive halt. On August 25, 1944, it fell to the soldiers of I Canadian Corps to spearhead the British Eighth Army’s attempt to rip a hole in the line. For the next twenty-eight days, the men of 1st Canadian Infantry Division and 5th Canadian Armoured Division slugged their way through a rugged killing ground in the most costly battle of the campaign. The Gothic Line portrays the horror, the fear, the courage, and ultimately the glory that Canadians won on this remote battlefield.